Cognitive Dissonance
by Ghostwriter Redux
Summary: Everyone knew that Meimu Higurashi had a handful of screws loose but could you honestly blame her? After all, anyone who said they would easily adapt to being reborn into a freaking manga was a liar and a fat mouth in her opinion. SI/OC-insert. Pairing: undecided.


Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Rumiko Takashi does.

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Takes place in modern 2017. Why? Because I'm writing it.

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 _In psychology, 'Cognitive Dissonance' is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values._

* * *

"Happy birthday Kagome."

"Thanks Mei," the aforementioned Kagome grinned, accepting the poorly wrapped gift from her big sister.

"No problem," Meimu said quietly, shoving her hands into the pockets of her basketball shorts that doubled as her PJs. "I'm gonna go get dressed real quick before breakfast."

"Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Meimu asked, turning from the doorway and facing the other teen.

"You seem down for some reason. You aren't your usual bubbly self," Kagome said, setting the gift aside on her bed. "Is something wrong?"

Mei fell silent, gray eyes staring off into space past Kagome's head. Kagome waited patiently for her to speak, having grown used to her sister's odd mannerisms over the past fifteen years.

Another moment passed before Mei spoke. "I'm fine."

"I find that incredibly hard to believe," Kagome snorted, rolling her eyes. "But I won't push it."

"Thank you," Mei said softly. She tried to smile for Kagome's sake, facial muscles twitching in vain as she attempted to complete the motion but found she couldn't. Couldn't even manage a fake one.

Kagome didn't seem to notice as she tore into her present, a pleased squeal escaping the younger girl when she saw what was inside.

"Oh my gosh really!?" she laughed gleefully, picking up the pink iPod Touch and matching ear buds.

"I put some of my favorites on there but you've got plenty of space left for your music. Figured you'd like it better than that CD player you've carried around since elementary."

"This is great! Way better than the present Grandpa got for me!"

Meimu pursed her lips in slight annoyance. "Hey, mom didn't raise you to be ungrateful."

Kagome ducked her head, having the grace to blush a bit. "S-sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"I know, it's okay," Mei replied. "Mom's making breakfast, hurry and get dressed."

"Will you walk with me to school today?" Kagome asked hopefully.

"Sure, but if you don't hurry I'll leave you behind," Mei warned her, exiting Kagome's bedroom and heading to her own.

She shut the door with a soft click, stripping off her robe and began pulling on the pieces to her school uniform. Since she was attending high school her uniform was different from Kagome's, consisting of a navy and green tartan skirt, white blouse, green sweater vest, and navy blazer.

Mei tied her red scarf around her neck, fastening her dark hair in a high ponytail as she looked at her reflection tiredly. Whoever said 'life is a bitch' clearly never had to endure a second go-round.

* * *

Her First Death would be what many would classify as an 'unfortunate accident'.

Put a group of rowdy college kids together in a small concert venue seeing a band that hadn't played live for five years, add some alcohol and accidents are bound to happen.

She'd had too much to drink. She barely scraped 5'1 and weighed a little over a hundred pounds dripping wet, thus possessing a pitiful alcohol tolerance that would certainly make her Irish Forefathers roll in their graves at the indecency of it all.

They had started playing one of her favorite songs and despite possessing an IQ that placed her somewhere up around Stephen Hawking level intellect she decided it would be a fantastic idea to crowd surf.

She was easily lifted into the air by her guy friends, laughing like an idiot with the other girls making their way to the stage on the hands of the crowd.

She was near the front when she was dropped. Whether it was accidental or intentional she'd never know (then again, she wasn't sure she wanted to). She felt hands grab for her to keep her from hitting the ground but it all happened so fast.

If she had to guess she had broken her neck when her head hit the ground. She hadn't felt any pain so she assumed she had torn her spinal cord in half, leading to a sudden and profuse drop in her blood pressure and died almost instantaneously from spinal shock. She must've given the boy who tried to catch her a heart attack, poor thing.

Hence unfortunate accident.

Dying had been easy.

It was what came after that was difficult.

She had never believed in reincarnation. It was supposed to be a Trinity; Birth, Life, Death. Not Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth.

And certainly not rebirth into what was, at one point, one of Japan's most popular Shōnen mangas; Inuyasha.

Do you see where she was going with this one?

It had been…quite a while since she had even touched anything that had to do with Inuyasha. Her stern yet loving parents squashed her love for anime and manga when she was sixteen, saying she was too old for comic books and cartoons. She caught reruns of it on TV when she was up late at night studying and the only way she knew it had ended was because her friends on Facebook had been discussing it.

It wasn't until Meimu was two and a half years old and holding her newborn sister, whose belly glowed cherry blossom pink with the Shikon Jewel, did she finally realize that she has been reborn into the world of Inuyasha and when she did she nearly dropped the infant in surprise.

Meimu immediately began formulating a plan as soon as she could. When she was five and her mom asked if she wanted to take ballet Mei suggested gymnastics. When she was seven Mei asked to be enrolled in martial arts classes rather than calligraphy after school. Mei learned as much about wilderness survival as possible and, having been going through PA school in her First Life, Mei had little difficulty reading anatomy books and medical journals to refresh her memory.

Even if she was unable to travel through the well with Kagome she'd be damned if she wasn't able to help her sister in some way when she came home.

Mei was also pleased to find that Kagome's Japan was an almost mirror image of her original world's, meaning she could listen to all her favorite music from her First Life.

It was the little things, after all.

Speaking of which, Mei grabbed her iPod off its charging dock, tucking it into her backpack with a spare set of ear buds. She made a mental note to request a solar-powered charger for her birthday later in the year and headed downstairs for breakfast.

She'd need all the energy she could get, after all…

* * *

"Thanks for the food mom. We've gotta get going."

"Okay, love you both." Mei swallowed tightly, fussing with the strap to her backpack before giving her 'mom' a tight hug.

"Love you," she muttered into Emiko's shoulder.

Her mom seemed taken aback by the sudden and rare show of affection from her eldest but wound her arms around Mei regardless. "Love you too sweetheart. Look after your sister."

"I will," Mei replied, voice muffled a bit before pulling away. She managed to keep from flinching away when Emiko dropped a kiss on top of her head, brushing her bangs back from her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, rubbing a thumb over Mei's cheek. "You seem worried about something."

"I'm good. Just had a weird dream last night that I can't get out of my head," Mei lied, pulling her backpack higher up on her shoulder. "But I'm okay."

"Okay. Be good."

"Always," Mei replied with a tiny smile before giving her Grandfather a one-armed hug and exited the house.

"Hurry up Mei or we'll be late."

" _You'll_ be late. My school is only ten minutes away," Meimu pointed out.

"But you promised you'd walk with me to school," Kagome pouted, resting her hands on her hips.

Mei rolled her eyes good-naturedly, grabbing her little sister in a headlock.

"Stop it Mei!" Kagome whined, struggling in her hold for a moment and batting at Mei's hand that was drilling into the top of her skull.

"Birthday noogie!" Mei laughed before releasing her.

"That wasn't funny," Kagome huffed, patting her hair down and glaring at the older teen.

"I thought it was," Mei replied cheekily though her smile faded upon seeing Sota standing at the door to the well house with Buyo's food dish in hand.

"What is he doing?" Kagome grumbled, marching over to the youngest Higurashi. "You know we aren't allowed in there, right?"

Sota jumped in surprise, nearly spilling the contents of the dish. "I know," he said snippily before frowning. "But Buyo went in there."

"So go get him," Mei replied with a raised eyebrow, resting a hand on her hip.

When he scuffed the toe of his sneaker into the ground and mumbled something about it being 'haunted' and that 'Buyo likes you better' Kagome strode past him, sliding the door open and peering in.

"Buyo? Come here kitty," she cooed, not taking a step into the well house.

"Go on then," Sota mocked her, giving her a light shove in the small of her back and sending her forward into the small wooden building.

"Quit it!" she hissed at him, whirling around and snatching the flashlight from him.

A faint scratching could be heard coming from the well as Kagome cautiously shuffled towards it, Sota gripping the back of her school blouse. "There's something down there!"

"Uh, yeah. The cat?" Mei reminded him, entering behind the pair as she waited with bated breath for the Plot to start.

Kagome shuffled forward cautiously and barely stifled a shriek when the fat cat suddenly jumped on top of the sealed well. She heard Sota scream behind her, a nervous laugh bubbling past her lips.

"You scream like a girl," Mei teased Sota playfully, grabbing Buyo from the well and giving him a peck on the head. She shared a smile with Kagome, turning her attention back to their brother. He puffed up his cheeks cutely, opening his mouth to begin denying it before his eyes widened.

"B-behind you," he stammered.

Mei didn't have time to react as she heard the wood covering the well splinter. Several pairs of arms extended out of the well and grabbed her around the middle. The ground vanished from beneath her feet as she was pulled ass over head into the well.

In for a penny, in for a pound, right…?

* * *

I was toying with the thought of doing a Self-Insert as Kagome but figured this would be more entertaining. Massively overdone, super cliche, probably gonna have some Mary Sue traits but I'll do my best to keep them to a minimum. Thanks for reading.


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